Blackest Day, Brightest Night
by The Hitchhiking Ghost
Summary: When Nico di Angelo and Will Solace disappear without a trace, it's up to five unclaimed demigods to solve the mystery and rescue them. They must hurry, however, because there is something more at stake aside from those two souls. / / Adopted from ThisSentenceIsALie. Rated T for violence and language. Minor case of SolAngelo.
1. JORDAN

**Welcome to the madhouse, everybody! This is the Hitchhiking Ghost and I'm here to bring you a story adopted from my friend, **_**ThisSentenceIsALie**_**. You see, she had this wonderful idea for a story without an annoyance known as Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. It features OCs submitted by other readers going on a quest. Unfortunately, due to personal problems, she had to discontinue the story and I volunteered to adopt it from her. Personally, I think she gives me way too much credit but I'll do my best to keep it interesting to the very end. Now, without further ado, let's jump right into the story. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters (aside from John Talbot).**

**JORDAN**

**I**

Cabin Zero, also known as _The Unclaimed Cabin_, was bigger than the other cabins and it resembled more of a boarding house, or a small observatory, rather than actual camp accommodation.

It was the second largest inhabited building in Camp Half-Blood, inferior only to the Big House, made of limestone with wooden deck and a domed roof. Usually it had no special decoration or ornaments but recently Jordan O'Reily, one-third of the Cabin's council, decided to upgrade it a little bit. The official version was, she was going to make all of the unclaimed campers feel a little bit more like home. Only Jordan herself knew the actual reason; to impress Rosemary Hill, the resident daughter of Persephone who stayed with them until she receives her own Cabin.

Jordan's goal was to change the Western side into a vine wall with multi-colored roses and passion flowers climbing up the stone. It took her almost three weeks to re-decorate the wall into the desired shape of an Italian-style ornament. She hoped, with this, it would be a matter of time before Rose would be hers. The very image of her happy face, while they admire the wall together, made Jordan smile and fidget.

"Careful there, Jordan," the voice of Tim, the instructor, snapped her out of the daydreaming phase. She barely had time to react, as she noticed the clay on her potter's wheel spinning way to fast and splattering wet, muddy projectiles all over the Arts & Crafts tent. The worst part was, the entire group assembled there directed their attention at her.

"Jordan, lower the speed," Tim said, slowly approaching her station. This made her flinch; not that it was his fault – Tim was a really swell guy and, as a son of Hephaestus, he certainly had a knack for various forms of handwork but it was the sudden amount of stress and everybody's eyes glued to her wheel that made Jordan shiver.

"I-I'm sorry!"

"It's okay," he said, slowly raising hands. "Just focus, and let go of the wheel."

"Y-Yes!" Jordan replied and closed her eyes. She could hear murmurs around her but tried her best to ignore them. She took a deep breath, slowly regaining control over her wheel, until it stopped spinning. The amphora she tried to make was now shaped like a flower vase. That definitely won't help her score points.

"Not bad." Tim scratched his chin, examining her 'creation'.

"Sorry," Jordan muttered again, turning her eyes away from everyone.

"No, I meant it," Tim replied, giving her a warm smile. "Go ahead and fire it outside. Or maybe glaze at the same time? I'm looking forward to see the result."

"Sure," Jordan said and grabbed her vase to fire it in a kiln. This specific furnace was, due to obvious safety measures, placed outside the tent. This was so embarrassing and she had to draw everyone's attention just because she was lost in thoughts about Rose.

That was so stupid, she thought. It's not like she's going to notice that whole re-decoration. After all, she was too busy being a tour guide for those Romans, sent here as an exchange group. Something about future plans about unification of both Camps into one, huge establishment. Honestly, sometimes Jordan wondered how many times her plans to approach Rose were ruined because the latter had to help the Romans.

"Here we have the Arts & Crafts tent." a soft, musical voice reached Jordan's ears in the exact moment of putting the pottery into the kiln and setting up the temperature. She moved her eyes, oh so slightly, to locate the source of this lovely, familiar voice. With just a corner of her eye she noticed a sweeping storm of golden hair, followed by five, clearly bored faces, passing by her and stopping before the entrance.

"It is usually run by Hephaestus' Cabin but, once in a while, Athena's kids come here to–" Rose paused again. "Oh, hey, Jordo!"

Jordan instantly turned her head to face the speaker, unintentionally raising the kiln's heat to maximum level. As soon as she felt the temperature, she shrieked and let out a curse (which normally would never happen in front of anyone) as she felt the stinging sensation on her palm. She managed to quickly take it away before the flames intensified and rose higher.

"Ow, ow, ow," she whined, flailing her hand around like crazy. Everybody around her took a large step backwards to avoid getting hit by accident. Only one girl, a short Mexican with black hair and blue eyes, decided to act; she grabbed the fire extinguisher, standing close to the tent's entrance, and pointed it towards Jordan. Soon, a stream of dry powder covered the panicking girl's hand and all was left was smoke and a bit of burnt sleeve.

"Phew," Jordan wiped her forehead, forgetting the arm was covered in dry powder, leaving a white stripe across her face. "Thanks."

"Are you okay?" In an instant, Rose was by her side, examining her arm.

"I think so, I'm–"

"Afraid of a teeny-tiny fire? Pathetic." One of the Romans, looking a lot like a combination between a Latino and a surfer, snickered. When he turned to gain approval of his friends, Jordan managed to send him the most deadly stare she could possibly come up with.

"Hey, back off!" Rose quickly returned to her group and jabbed the surfer in the chest, making him flinch a little. As always, when quickly changing her demeanor, her Welsh accent was starting to sound more and more prominent.

"I agreed to take you guys on a tour under some conditions," she continued, while moving forward, making the guy slowly backing away. "You will be nice to others. Especially, when they are my friends. If not, I will make you leave my Camp."

"_Our_ Camp, Rose," Jordan corrected her. Although it was good that she defended her and didn't let those Romans get on her head, Rose sometimes seemed to be a little too… possessive of those close to her. Not that Jordan would mind but, on some occasions, it seemed too weird.

Rose turned so fast, her blonde hair looked like a halo around her head. She noticed Jordan standing behind her, avoiding to look at the Romans, with white powder on her arm and smeared across her forehead like a bandana.

"What? Oh, right. _Our_ Camp." She spun back and, if possible, got even closer to the Roman. If demigod eyes could kill, the guy would certainly fell to the ground and the cause of death would be those magnificent, poison green eyes.

"Anything else you wish to say?"

"Yes. This was a waste of time, trying to socialize with some worthless Greek scu–"

_BAM!_

"Gah!" Rose curled up, holding her clutched fist, spitting Greek curses left and right. Jordan could catch something about Minotaur's droppings, where the Roman's face may end up and – her particular favorite – how she's going to skewer him and sell as a shish-kebab on a county fair.

Jordan stood there in shock, as were the other member of the tour, and looked at her cursing friend, massaging her fist, and the Roman guy lying on the ground, clutching his stomach. Oddly enough, one of his friends – the girl who used the fire extinguisher on Jordan – tried her best to conceal a smile.

"Alright, that settles it," Rose said, cradling her fist. "If nobody else has any offensive comments, we may continue."

When she walked by Jordan, she muttered, "Tell someone to take him to the Big House, would you?"

Jordan just nodded, still trying to process what she just witnessed, when she heard Rose asking the Mexican girl, "What do you guys eat at that Camp of yours, concrete blocks?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN.: Alright-y then, here we go! Something worth noticing: in the original this was only a part of the first chapter (there were two other characters introduced, along with their points-of-view) but, since I strongly dislike chapters where POVs switch, I've decided to split it into three separate parts. I hope you guys will enjoy it! As for you guys who submitted the characters – if there's something wrong with the way I'm writing them, PM me to let me know.**

**Next Time: John Vito Talbot and his adventure to find peace and quiet.**


	2. JOHN

**Um... hey there, guys...**

*****_**Sees a sniper's pointer aiming right at his forehead**_*****

**Umm... okay, so you **_**are**_** a bit angry. Let's move on, then!**

**JOHN  
>II<strong>

Today, John Talbot invented a new Murphy's Law: _If you're looking for a peaceful and quiet place to relax, there will always be people to ruin it for you!_ This day was no exception.

Waking up in the morning (with a bunch of loud, unclaimed demigods), having breakfast (in a loud dining pavilion), doing some Camp duties (with a loud group of other participants) and finally came that blissful moment; the free period, when nobody would disturb him. It was the time for John to just sit inside his favorite yew tree and isolate from loud and fast-pacing world.

John found this hiding spot a while ago and didn't tell anyone about it; it was a clever idea if he ever wished to disappear. It was quite a large yew with a hollow inside. It could fit maybe two people there and it proved to be a fantastic companion in John's journey into solitude. That is, of course, if he was by himself when visiting the tree.

"Good to see you again, John," a soft, female voice sounded just as the boy entered the tree cave, "did you bring me anything?"

A girl peeked inside the tree. She looked about seventeen with large, almond-shaped green eyes, brown hair reaching behind her shoulders and a few freckles spread around her nose. As always, she arrived without making any sound.

"Hey, Ita," John said, not even raising his head. "No, I don't, but I hope I'm not interrupting."

Ita just giggled and let herself inside the tree. It would be strange, if she couldn't; her real name was Itamos and she was the dryad protecting this yew. She sat opposite to John and pulled her knees towards her stomach. As much as he tried, John couldn't ignore those eyes scanning every centimeter of his body. He sighed and closed the book he had with him.

"What?"

"Nothing," she said but then added, "you seem to be awfully quiet today."

"Had enough noise for one morning," he replied, rubbing his temples. It was true, usually he has a nice chat with Ita and she makes all the stress and troubles go away. But this time was different, all the noises, yells and shouts made John unusually angry. Because of that, he really didn't want to upset Ita; she was really a kind spirit and he would feel like a last, miserable bastard if he upset her.

The dryad only nodded, still smiling. A moment later, she tilted her head with curiosity. "What are you reading?"

"Tolkien," he said, showing her the cover of _The Return of the King_. He knew most demigods displayed two conditions which adapts them to future training and life, dyslexia and ADHD. In John's case, he was only 'gifted' with the latter. This was a good thing because John discovered he _loved_ books; all those worlds created from just a thought, an idea that can produce a marvelous adventures and suck you in for hours!

"Oh," Ita smiled, "Was he the one having those dryads in the large forest?"

"No, that was Sapkowski."

"Read it to me, anyway," she asked.

Itamos was one curious dryad; when she discovered John occupying her tree, instead of yelling at him, she started asking questions: about the large mortal cities, other demigods and basically everything a child might've ask. When John didn't visit her for a while, the amount of questions was so large he had to bring lunch because they would sit inside that tree for a long, long time.

"Alright," he said, clearing his throat.

As the reading continued, the day went on. Both of them lost the track of time and finally, when they got to 'the Undying Lands' part, John looked outside and his eyes widened.

"How long have we been sitting here?" he asked. Ita just studied his expression and shrugged.

"A moment?" she replied with a question but John knew it has been far more than a moment; a large group of campers was returning from the stables where they've had winged horseback riding with the Demeter Cabin. That means it was sometime after 1 p.m.! Very bad, considering John came here after his sword & shield class, at 10 a.m.!

"_Di immortales_," he cursed, "I've been here three hours?!"

"That's bad?" Ita asked. As soon as she said that, a sound of the conch announced lunchtime. It wasn't horrible for John to skip activities in general but archery with Chiron was the one he'd prefer to attend. You really shouldn't piss off your immortal, sharpshooting centaur.

"I gotta go," he said, crawling through the yew's roots, "I'll drop by later, Ita."

"Sure," the dryad said, "I'm not going anywhere."

Quickly brushing off some dirt and dust from his pants, John caught up to the group and successfully infiltrated it, blending with the campers. Nobody would now be able to prove he wasn't with them the entire time; this was something he was good at – becoming so plain, he could be taken as an element of the background. It didn't really bother him; true, there were people _immune_ to this (i.e. his comrades from Cabin Zero) but most of the time this allowed his to get as much peace and quiet as he wished.

"John!" He turned around hearing a familiar voice, and saw Jordan waving to him. This was unexpected, as she was one of the more 'stay-back' type.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow. Jordan was panting heavily and it took her a moment to finally speak.

"I need a hand," she explained, gesturing wildly towards the Arts & Crafts tent. "A quick one, if that's not a problem."

"Lead the way," he said, glancing towards the dining pavilion where the majority of the campers was already present. He noticed Rose and her tour group; they exchanged glances and John shot her his best _We'll be right back, cover for us!_ look. She just nodded and Jordan showed him the problem.

"Oh, come on," John said, when they arrived in front of the A&C tent. Judging by the look of an unconscious Roman with one hand on his stomach, he kinda knew what has occurred. Definitely not a pretty sight but at lease she held back.

"This has _Rose _written all over it."

"In capital letters," Jordan added, "but what do you expect, this guy behaved like a monkey! Are all the Romans like that?"

"Give them some credit," John muttered, while trying to pick up the dude, "just four months ago, they believed us to be their sworn enemies. Don't expect a sudden change."

"Oh yeah, because that permits them to act like they own the place," Jordan huffed. "Come on, let's get him to the Big House."

* * *

><p><strong>AN.: Okay, before you fire shots at me for not updating, I apologize for the anti-climactic ending of this chapter. Also, I feel like I shouldn't explain my absence but make-up for it with more updates so expect something else this week. Definitely an update to **_**Battle on Olympus**_** with its first match, as well as new story starring SolAngelo and their quest to restore the Oracle of Delphi!**

**Next time: Everything finally starts with the disappearance of certain Head Councilors. **


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